Census scrapped
life and society politics 32 minutes ago
The Census is to be scrapped, in the biggest change to how New Zealand counts its population in more than 70 years. Since 1951, the Census has gathered demographic data on every New Zealander every five years. But today Statistics Minister Shane Reti has confirmed from 2030, the Census will be replaced with a combination of administrative data from other government agencies, and smaller annual surveys that just a proportion of people will complete. Paul Spoonley is an emeritus professor at Massey University, with expertise in demography.
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RNZ News
39 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Five-yearly Census to be scrapped from 2030, replaced with administrative data, annual surveys
The Census has been taken in the same format for more than 70 years, but those days are over. Photo: RNZ New Zealanders have filled out their last traditional Census form, with the five-yearly count scrapped from 2030. Statistics Minister Shane Reti announced today that the Census - which has existed in a similar format for more than 70 years - will be replaced with a combination of administrative data from other government agencies and smaller annual surveys that a sample of the population will complete. There will be no 2028 Census. The announcement was made just as England and Wales looks set to abandon a similar approach for their 2031 Census, with the UK Statistical Agency recommending that a traditional Census go ahead instead . Reti said he was confident the approach would work in New Zealand. "Amongst other things, we've got a smaller population so it's a smaller problem to grapple with," he said. Stats NZ, which governs the Census, said there would be a lot of work over the next five years to ensure the administrative data it will rely on is up to scratch. Acting chief statistician Mary Craig said the agency was already working with other government departments. "Some of the Census data is almost at the level we will need it, and others not so much," she said. "There's a level of data from everybody, but does it actually have all the attributes that we would need for this type of exercise? No." The change follows a major review carried out last year , after the 2023 Census. Reti said the traditional Census was "no longer financially viable". "Despite the unsustainable and escalating costs, successive censuses have been beset with issues or failed to meet expectations," he said. An attempt to shift the Census online in 2018 was a failure, with much lower than normal completion rates that affected Māori particularly badly . The fallout prompted the chief statistician to resign, and the 2023 Census was shifted back to a paper form. However, completion rates were still lower than previous years, with only 88 percent of the population filling out and returning the 2023 form. The Census does more than just provide interesting insights into how New Zealand is changing - it serves some crucial democratic functions. It helps to determine how and where government funding is spent for basic services and infrastructure like hospitals and schools, now and in the future . The population count also determines how many electorates there are, and where their boundaries should be drawn. The Census is also the only nation-wide survey of housing conditions - collecting information on the size of each dwelling, the number of people living there, and which basic services like internet are available. Reti said not only would the new approach save time and money, it would also provide "more timely insights" into New Zealand's population. The most recent Census cost $325 million, and the data analysis involved meant the first results were not released until mid-2024. "By leveraging data already collected by government agencies, we can produce key census statistics every year, better informing decisions that affect people's lives," Reti said. A Census has been held in New Zealand every five years since 1851, with only a few exceptions - most recently following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. This will be the biggest change to how the Census is conducted since 1951, when the same Census form was filled out by Māori and European New Zealanders for the first time. Administrative data would form the "backbone" of the new system, with surveys - which will begin in 2027 - helping to fill in data gaps, especially for smaller populations. The administrative data used would include information from tax records, education enrolments, health data, student loans and allowances and ACC injury claims. Some statisticians and demographers have warned that any move away from a traditional Census that attempts to count and survey the entire population will need to be done carefully and transparently. Last year, a group of senior researchers at the Public Health Communications Centre - many of whom rely on Census data for their work - said there was a role for administrative data. However, it had been shown to "not be up to the task in many areas, such as understanding households or people's health and well-being, compared with survey data", they wrote . Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Immigration minister faces questions over deportations, parent visas, asylum and Gaza
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER Medical insurance for the new parent boost visa will cost migrants up to $8000 a year, according to the immigration minister. Erica Stanford was quizzed on Tuesday by MPs in the Education and Workforce Committee, as part of budget scrutiny week in topics that covered everything from skilled migrants, to children born as overstayers and visas for people from the Middle East. The new five-year parent visa allows parents of New Zealand citizens and residents to visit and possibly renew their visa - with a maximum stay of 10 years. Health insurance prices vary according to age and health, with costs over the five-year visa period estimated at between $10,000 and $40,000. But Stanford said those costs were less than half the annual policies they looked at initially, which would have required comprehensive cover for all doctors' fees and specialists. "It was like $15,000 to $20,000 for full insurance and we just thought it's not doable and it's going to defeat the purpose of the visa. So we didn't go with comprehensive. We went with literally the minimum, which is emergency only. We added cancer [treatment] in there as well because it really made very little difference to the amount." Other financial requirements of the visa were designed to make sure families could support their visiting parents' other health, housing, and living costs, she said. Labour's immigration spokesperson Phil Twyford said it risked being viewed as a visa reserved for families of a wealthy minority. Stanford said other visas were available. "Are you saying it's easy for migrant families to bring their parents in on those other visas?" asked Twyford. "Because that's not at all what people in the community say." Stanford disputed that, and also stressed that the government was being careful to ensure parents were being looked after on a long-term visa. Under questions about whether the criteria were set to ration the number of potential applications, she said the government had not looked at rationing or numbers, and feedback had been overwhelmingly positive. "When you draw a line somewhere, there are always people below and always people above - that's just the nature of drawing a line." INZ head Alison McDonald, immigration minister Erica Stanford and MBIE chief executive Carolyn Tremain at Tuesday's hearing. Photo: Screenshot / Education and Workforce Committee Stanford told the committee there were four children born since 2006 to parents without residence visas or citizenship who had been deported in the last five years. She said lawyers had suggested to her that affected numbers of youngsters were 'likely to be very low'. Others say increasing numbers of those babies are now turning 18 and 19, and some cannot get a work visa or a university education - and in some cases face deportation. Neither she nor Immigration New Zealand answered a question on how many affected children and young people were being worked with by compliance staff. Green Party immigration spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March said if numbers were low it may be because they had already been pressured into 'removing themselves from the country'. INZ head of compliance Steve Watson said they would not be deported until 'they had exhausted every other option available to them.' Teenagers or their parents could also approach the associate minister for a decision. Twyford said the numbers being seen was a tip of the iceberg because they lived in 'extreme insecurity'. He asked whether Stanford thought the system was right, saying the current crop of teenagers facing deportation was a feature of the system, 'not a bug'. "It is important that people stick to the conditions of their visa, because we can't have a situation where if you have a child and wait long enough, then everything will be okay," Stanford replied, first noting it was Helen Clark's government which introduced the law change. "Everyone has to abide by the conditions of their visa. And I'm not sure why in this case we would say 'well, you are okay' because the very next question you are going to ask me after we say yes to the child ... is 'oh, but what about their parents? And that's exactly what's happening." Twyford asked whether she had considered what Australia and the UK do, granting citizenship after the first 10 years of a child's life. "We are not Australia and the UK," she said. "There is already a process for these children, and I understand that they're in a difficult situation but there is a pathway. Apply to the associate minister of immigration." Twyford asked her whether in hindsight, not creating humanitarian visas for relatives of Palestinians living here was the right decision, given the scale of the tragedy unfolding there. A special category visa category had been opened in similar circumstances for families of Ukrainians. Stanford said the difference between Ukraine and Gaza was that Palestinians could not physically escape to get to New Zealand. Cabinet's decision was not being reviewed. "At this point, it's not something that we've considered, it would have to go through Cabinet, and Cabinet have decided at this time that they're satisfied with the settings that are in place." INZ was facilitating people from Gaza who were applying for other visas, she said. Asked about Palestinians already here, INZ head Alison McDonald told the committee that staff would look carefully at those cases. "Not just from Gaza, from Israel, from Iran, from Iraq, people who can't return home... we'll find a way to regularise [their visas] until they can get home." The immigration minister told the committee that changes to skilled migrant visas are coming soon, the numbers of high-rolling investors are increasing and entrepreneur visas will also be given a makeover. The update to the entrepreneur visa would drive productivity, GDP and employment, and help in finding buyers for businesses whose owners needed to sell, said Stanford. AEWV (work visas) were now much quicker for businesses to navigate and more overseas workers were arriving to fill skill shortages. Overseas investor visa application numbers had outstripped expectations, she said, and many of them were also 'huge philanthropists', hinting that some would be well-known names. "I remember we got 200 in the first year, I'd be really happy - we've had 175 since April and almost half of those are out of the States, lots out of Germany, some from China, Hong Kong, Singapore - so a mix, but certainly more than we thought. "There's a billion dollars about to be invested - but it's not the money, it's the people, their skills, their talent. Some of the applicants and where they've come from, you would all know. They're amazing people." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Fiery debate over deportations, parent visas, asylum and Gaza
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER Medical insurance for the new parent boost visa will cost migrants up to $8000 a year, according to the immigration minister. Erica Stanford was quizzed on Tuesday by MPs in the Education and Workforce Committee, as part of budget scrutiny week in topics that covered everything from skilled migrants, to children born as overstayers and visas for people from the Middle East. The new five-year parent visa allows parents of New Zealand citizens and residents to visit and possibly renew their visa - with a maximum stay of 10 years. Health insurance prices vary according to age and health, with costs over the five-year visa period estimated at between $10,000 and $40,000. But Stanford said those costs were less than half the annual policies they looked at initially, which would have required comprehensive cover for all doctors' fees and specialists. "It was like $15,000 to $20,000 for full insurance and we just thought it's not doable and it's going to defeat the purpose of the visa. So we didn't go with comprehensive. We went with literally the minimum, which is emergency only. We added cancer [treatment] in there as well because it really made very little difference to the amount." Other financial requirements of the visa were designed to make sure families could support their visiting parents' other health, housing, and living costs, she said. Labour's immigration spokesperson Phil Twyford said it risked being viewed as a visa reserved for families of a wealthy minority. Stanford said other visas were available. "Are you saying it's easy for migrant families to bring their parents in on those other visas?" asked Twyford. "Because that's not at all what people in the community say." Stanford disputed that, and also stressed that the government was being careful to ensure parents were being looked after on a long-term visa. Under questions about whether the criteria were set to ration the number of potential applications, she said the government had not looked at rationing or numbers, and feedback had been overwhelmingly positive. "When you draw a line somewhere, there are always people below and always people above - that's just the nature of drawing a line." INZ head Alison McDonald, immigration minister Erica Stanford and MBIE chief executive Carolyn Tremain at Tuesday's hearing. Photo: Screenshot / Education and Workforce Committee Stanford told the committee there were four children born since 2006 to parents without residence visas or citizenship who had been deported in the last five years. She said lawyers had suggested to her that affected numbers of youngsters were 'likely to be very low'. Others say increasing numbers of those babies are now turning 18 and 19, and some cannot get a work visa or a university education - and in some cases face deportation. Neither she nor Immigration New Zealand answered a question on how many affected children and young people were being worked with by compliance staff. Green Party immigration spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March said if numbers were low it may be because they had already been pressured into 'removing themselves from the country'. INZ head of compliance Steve Watson said they would not be deported until 'they had exhausted every other option available to them.' Teenagers or their parents could also approach the associate minister for a decision. Twyford said the numbers being seen was a tip of the iceberg because they lived in 'extreme insecurity'. He asked whether Stanford thought the system was right, saying the current crop of teenagers facing deportation was a feature of the system, 'not a bug'. "It is important that people stick to the conditions of their visa, because we can't have a situation where if you have a child and wait long enough, then everything will be okay," Stanford replied, first noting it was Helen Clark's government which introduced the law change. "Everyone has to abide by the conditions of their visa. And I'm not sure why in this case we would say 'well, you are okay' because the very next question you are going to ask me after we say yes to the child ... is 'oh, but what about their parents? And that's exactly what's happening." Twyford asked whether she had considered what Australia and the UK do, granting citizenship after the first 10 years of a child's life. "We are not Australia and the UK," she said. "There is already a process for these children, and I understand that they're in a difficult situation but there is a pathway. Apply to the associate minister of immigration." Twyford asked her whether in hindsight, not creating humanitarian visas for relatives of Palestinians living here was the right decision, given the scale of the tragedy unfolding there. A special category visa category had been opened in similar circumstances for families of Ukrainians. Stanford said the difference between Ukraine and Gaza was that Palestinians could not physically escape to get to New Zealand. Cabinet's decision was not being reviewed. "At this point, it's not something that we've considered, it would have to go through Cabinet, and Cabinet have decided at this time that they're satisfied with the settings that are in place." INZ was facilitating people from Gaza who were applying for other visas, she said. Asked about Palestinians already here, INZ head Alison McDonald told the committee that staff would look carefully at those cases. "Not just from Gaza, from Israel, from Iran, from Iraq, people who can't return home... we'll find a way to regularise [their visas] until they can get home." The immigration minister told the committee that changes to skilled migrant visas are coming soon, the numbers of high-rolling investors are increasing and entrepreneur visas will also be given a makeover. The update to the entrepreneur visa would drive productivity, GDP and employment, and help in finding buyers for businesses whose owners needed to sell, said Stanford. AEWV (work visas) were now much quicker for businesses to navigate and more overseas workers were arriving to fill skill shortages. Overseas investor visa application numbers had outstripped expectations, she said, and many of them were also 'huge philanthropists', hinting that some would be well-known names. "I remember we got 200 in the first year, I'd be really happy - we've had 175 since April and almost half of those are out of the States, lots out of Germany, some from China, Hong Kong, Singapore - so a mix, but certainly more than we thought. "There's a billion dollars about to be invested - but it's not the money, it's the people, their skills, their talent. Some of the applicants and where they've come from, you would all know. They're amazing people." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
